The Potters Cast | Pottery | Ceramics | Art | Craft

Ceramic artist Patrick Johnston knew at the age of six that ceramics would be his life. After a kindergarten project, Johnston asked his teacher if he could hold the scraps of clay. "I stood next to the tree on playground, squished the clay in my fingers, and I knew that I had found it!" Since his epiphany, Patrick Johnston has never stopped working with clay. Johnston has been written about in numerous publications, including the, " LA Times Magazine", and  has earned a degree in ceramic design from The Rhode Island School of Design. Patrick's current studio, The Temple of Mediclaytion, is in Venice, CA. 

Direct download: Episode_106_Patrick_Johnston.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

‘Made to be used’ is perhaps the best way to describe Thomas Aitken’s work. From as early as he can remember Thomas has loved to make things that work. And throughout his training and professional life he has continued to develop functional ceramic objects for use. Starting his ceramic studies at Red Deer College, Alberta and completing a BFA:Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1995. An interest in European ceramic traditions led him to study at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, U.K. where in 1997 he graduated with a Masters in Ceramics. Then back to Canada to set up a studio in Toronto. Five years later he moved his home and studio to the village of Warsaw, near Peterborough, Ontario. Here he works full time developing his own work and collaborating on joint projects with his wife Kate Hyde. His work is widely sought after and is in a number of collections around the world.

Direct download: Episode_105_Thomas_Aitken.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Emily Schroeder Willis received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2006. She was awarded the Jerome Fellowship from the Northern Clay Center and the Sage Scholarship from the Archie Bray Foundation. She has been an artist-in-residence/visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin, Germany and at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Canada.  In 2012, she was a presenter at Arrowmont’s Utilitarian Clay Conference.  Currently, she lives in Chicago where she is an Instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Direct download: Episode_104_Emily_Schroeder.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Teneke van Gils' ceramic career started in the eighties in Amsterdam and continued on her husband's diary farm near to Delft. Teneka's dancepartner is porcelain on the potters wheel.  Teapots are her favorite, they brought invitations from China. Tineke's work is exhibited in The Netherlands and abroad.

Direct download: Episode_103_Tineke_van_Gil.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Anderson Bailey is a studio potter living and working in Chattanooga, TN. Using different building techniques, Anderson creates simple forms with quiet surfaces that are meant for daily use. He recently started a collaborative line of slip-cast functional ceramics with Anderson's wife, Jessie Bean Bailey.

Direct download: Episode_102_Anderson_Bailey.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Born the daughter of a painter and an organic dairy farmer, Molly was raised to be creatively industrious. Using her imagination and love of drawing to make everything from her well known idiosyncratic ceramics to quirky pen-and-ink drawings. Molly’s craft is finely honed, her designs whimsically literal and pop-culturally on-point.

Working from her home studio, Molly began making her living as a full-time studio potter in 2008. Her formal education in ceramics and drawing resulted in the development of her signature style. Making contemporary ceramics inspired by history, Molly’s career as a studio potter quickly garnered a loyal following. Molly’s designs have expanded beyond tableware to a wide range of lifestyle products and Molly is actively growing collections of home goods to bring her modern yet traditional designs to the contemporary home.

Direct download: Episode_101_Molly_Hatch.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Ariel fell in love with clay in 3rd grade and has continued to work with the material ever since, incorporating techniques of hand building, slip casting and throwing on the pottery wheel into her creations. Her interests range from utilitarian design to life under the sea. Ariel graduated with a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & Tufts University in 2009.

Direct download: Episode_100_Ariel_Zimman.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Andrew Stephenson was born in Birmingham, England in 1972 and moved to the states with his family in 1979.  He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from East Carolina University in 1996. Shortly after graduation he moved to Asheville, NC to take a position as a resident potter at the Odyssey Center for the ceramic Arts. Andrew has always loved the folk pottery of England and especially the wood fired salt-glazed pottery of North Carolina, so when he was offered a two year apprenticeship with Matt Jones, a former apprentice of Todd Piker and Mark Hewitt, he jumped at the chance. During the apprenticeship he learned the forms and turning techniques that have been passed down from potter to potter since the days of Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew. Andrew also helped Matt fire his 300 cubic foot wood fired kiln and his smaller 100 cubic foot kiln fueling his love for wood firing.  When Andrew was finished with his apprenticeship he bought a house in rural Rutherford county, received a grant, and built his own 300 cubic foot wood kiln and holds several kiln openings a year. Andrew continues the long tradition of wood firing in North Carolina and sells his work in galleries throughout the southeast.

Direct download: Episode_99_Andrew_Stephenson.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

April Noble is a ceramic artist living in Denver, Colorado. She is currently working on her MFA through a low residency program at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. She currently teaches a pottery class at a local recreation center as well as works as a studio tech at a local community college.

Direct download: Episode_98_April_Noble.mp3
Category:Pottery -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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